A couple of words about cloud computing ecology
Like any other technology company, Cloud4Y is aware of the negative impact of any technology on nature. In Russia, there are still no widely known, and most importantly - effective, initiatives to protect the environment, so today we will talk about the Western approach to the question of how the cloud and any other information technologies affect the environment and what to do about it.
A sustainable approach to ICT (Information and Communication Technologies) is a global imperative that must be implemented without fail. All technology companies, including cloud service providers, should take this into account in their work and in improving their products.
Modern cloud providers have no choice but to rethink their ways of changing and interacting with existing systems, as well as methods of developing new infrastructure approaches in the event that ICT continues to be in the service of the digital world. In the near future, we will have immeasurably more energy efficient achievements in almost every aspect of ICT. These bold statements, but they are based on studies that prove the harsh realities.
')
Global CO2 emissions from all enterprises in the information and communications sector account for 2% of the total. This is about 830 metric tons of CO2, which is comparable to carbon emissions from the aviation industry, which is universally inclined for its "contribution" to environmental pollution. According to forecasts, the share of the allocation of information and communication enterprises will double by 2020, that is, in just 4 years.
World consumption of Internet services, which are based on the activities of information and communication companies, will grow by 30% -40% annually. If the predictions are true, then within 10 years the volume of Internet traffic will increase 30 times (taking into account the complex formula for calculating, within 20 years its volume will increase 1,000 times ). If nothing is done, then for only 10 years, the enterprises of the information and communication industry will consume about 60% of the global energy resources - an unbearable burden for the environment.
When optimizing the energy efficiency of ICT 1000 times over a 20-year period, then there can be no change in energy consumption and emissions.
The cloud has both advantages and disadvantages in improving the environmental performance of information and communication technologies. It is known that the cloud is able to provide a certain pool of resources for customers at a much lower cost than with self-filling the infrastructure with hardware and software. This means removing the load on computing and data storage resources in favor of remote locations, such as cloud storage (like the well-known DropBox). Such remote data centers today are highly resilient and, based on current best practices, can use renewable energy sources.
Cloud business is good only because it reduces energy costs, and major cloud service providers understand the problems of cloud development and the impact of this development on CO2 emissions. On the other hand, the fact that cloud computing is performed by remote data centers tends to significantly affect the energy efficiency of the cloud. Affordable cloud computing, both in terms of deployment speed and cost, is pushing more and more organizations to use them, exacerbating environmental issues.
There are two ways of interoperability between cloud technologies and a “green” approach to ICT.
The first is to make sure that all cloud ICTs are as energy efficient as possible, ranging from the smallest sensors to entire data centers.
The second is to use cloud services and ICT together to create energy efficient technologies, systems and processes for consumer needs and industry verticals. When using the first method, the whole backbone is reengineered to obtain greater energy efficiency. New paradigms to achieve this goal include software-defined networks or network virtualization, which can separate the control plane and the data transfer plane.
The cloud in action also requires cyber-physical solutions. Managing energy-efficient virtual machines (VMs), energy-efficient containers as a service (containers as a service - CaaS), scaling energy-efficient networks and even managing infrastructure through renewable energy sources - all of this is now focused on the cybernetic field and works for the good. Knowledge of the physical world is also crucial. For example, continuous monitoring of the thermal state of data centers and making heat-dependent decisions for virtual machines and CaaS are mandatory. Although researchers are studying this problem, we need standard protocols and interfaces for robust and environmentally friendly cloud networks.
From the point of view of users, the deployment of the "cloud" will improve the environment. For example, people who work on shared documents, as a rule, use the exchange of messages and files by e-mail, proudly noticing that they do not use paper. A more environmentally friendly cloud approach implies the use of online collaboration tools instead of local computers, which, as you know, emit up to 40% of the global greenhouse gases.
This transition is within the purview of SaaS providers (software as a service), who should thus modify the design of the cloud software to encourage as many end users as possible to migrate to the cloud. At the same time, when using the platform as a service (PaaS), the “cloud” remains as if isolated, hampering the development of CaaS. When choosing the second method, we can use the computing power and large amounts of data available in the cloud to develop the most energy efficient technologies, systems and processes for environmental protection. An example is the production and distribution of market models for energy capacities that have the greatest negative impact on the carbon balance in the atmosphere. The intelligent network is a step in this direction, making current practice more efficient and using intelligent distributed energy resources.
The dual needs we considered led to the creation in January 2015 of the ICT Environmental Standard by the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers ( IEEE Green ICT Initiative), whose mission includes a complete rethinking of the design, creation and use of ICT. The initiative works with 16 diverse IEEE communities that cover topics such as cloud computing, the Internet of things, big data, smart cities and intelligent networks, and with leading research institutes around the world. Everyone can join this initiative.
A new multidisciplinary approach, coordinated by the IEEE Environmental Standard, should create different types of collaboration, such as the collaboration of IT specialists with professors in chemistry and biomolecular sciences.
This example of collaboration has already spawned the creation of recyclable paper-based portable sensors that do not consume energy, and can also track changes in their environment. Cooperating on the basis of mobile communications, they can replace the usual environmental sensors used for cloud computing.
Today, we are working to save energy in the process of collecting data using cloud technologies and in the process of multidirectional communications required by the "cloud". Medium-term goals include the search for energy resources for each step in cloud processes. In the longer term, it is worth moving in the direction of creating for the “cloud” devices without batteries and the need for any kind of power at all, as well as, perhaps, redesigning the data center structure in principle. In a sense, the future of our digital society depends on the effectiveness of all these efforts to achieve productive cloud and ICT in general
A sustainable approach to ICT (Information and Communication Technologies) is a global imperative that must be implemented without fail. All technology companies, including cloud service providers, should take this into account in their work and in improving their products.
Modern cloud providers have no choice but to rethink their ways of changing and interacting with existing systems, as well as methods of developing new infrastructure approaches in the event that ICT continues to be in the service of the digital world. In the near future, we will have immeasurably more energy efficient achievements in almost every aspect of ICT. These bold statements, but they are based on studies that prove the harsh realities.
')
Root of evil
Global CO2 emissions from all enterprises in the information and communications sector account for 2% of the total. This is about 830 metric tons of CO2, which is comparable to carbon emissions from the aviation industry, which is universally inclined for its "contribution" to environmental pollution. According to forecasts, the share of the allocation of information and communication enterprises will double by 2020, that is, in just 4 years.
World consumption of Internet services, which are based on the activities of information and communication companies, will grow by 30% -40% annually. If the predictions are true, then within 10 years the volume of Internet traffic will increase 30 times (taking into account the complex formula for calculating, within 20 years its volume will increase 1,000 times ). If nothing is done, then for only 10 years, the enterprises of the information and communication industry will consume about 60% of the global energy resources - an unbearable burden for the environment.
When optimizing the energy efficiency of ICT 1000 times over a 20-year period, then there can be no change in energy consumption and emissions.
Cloud or cloud?
The cloud has both advantages and disadvantages in improving the environmental performance of information and communication technologies. It is known that the cloud is able to provide a certain pool of resources for customers at a much lower cost than with self-filling the infrastructure with hardware and software. This means removing the load on computing and data storage resources in favor of remote locations, such as cloud storage (like the well-known DropBox). Such remote data centers today are highly resilient and, based on current best practices, can use renewable energy sources.
Cloud business is good only because it reduces energy costs, and major cloud service providers understand the problems of cloud development and the impact of this development on CO2 emissions. On the other hand, the fact that cloud computing is performed by remote data centers tends to significantly affect the energy efficiency of the cloud. Affordable cloud computing, both in terms of deployment speed and cost, is pushing more and more organizations to use them, exacerbating environmental issues.
What to do?
There are two ways of interoperability between cloud technologies and a “green” approach to ICT.
The first is to make sure that all cloud ICTs are as energy efficient as possible, ranging from the smallest sensors to entire data centers.
The second is to use cloud services and ICT together to create energy efficient technologies, systems and processes for consumer needs and industry verticals. When using the first method, the whole backbone is reengineered to obtain greater energy efficiency. New paradigms to achieve this goal include software-defined networks or network virtualization, which can separate the control plane and the data transfer plane.
The cloud in action also requires cyber-physical solutions. Managing energy-efficient virtual machines (VMs), energy-efficient containers as a service (containers as a service - CaaS), scaling energy-efficient networks and even managing infrastructure through renewable energy sources - all of this is now focused on the cybernetic field and works for the good. Knowledge of the physical world is also crucial. For example, continuous monitoring of the thermal state of data centers and making heat-dependent decisions for virtual machines and CaaS are mandatory. Although researchers are studying this problem, we need standard protocols and interfaces for robust and environmentally friendly cloud networks.
From the point of view of users, the deployment of the "cloud" will improve the environment. For example, people who work on shared documents, as a rule, use the exchange of messages and files by e-mail, proudly noticing that they do not use paper. A more environmentally friendly cloud approach implies the use of online collaboration tools instead of local computers, which, as you know, emit up to 40% of the global greenhouse gases.
Ongoing initiatives
This transition is within the purview of SaaS providers (software as a service), who should thus modify the design of the cloud software to encourage as many end users as possible to migrate to the cloud. At the same time, when using the platform as a service (PaaS), the “cloud” remains as if isolated, hampering the development of CaaS. When choosing the second method, we can use the computing power and large amounts of data available in the cloud to develop the most energy efficient technologies, systems and processes for environmental protection. An example is the production and distribution of market models for energy capacities that have the greatest negative impact on the carbon balance in the atmosphere. The intelligent network is a step in this direction, making current practice more efficient and using intelligent distributed energy resources.
The dual needs we considered led to the creation in January 2015 of the ICT Environmental Standard by the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers ( IEEE Green ICT Initiative), whose mission includes a complete rethinking of the design, creation and use of ICT. The initiative works with 16 diverse IEEE communities that cover topics such as cloud computing, the Internet of things, big data, smart cities and intelligent networks, and with leading research institutes around the world. Everyone can join this initiative.
Multifaceted world
A new multidisciplinary approach, coordinated by the IEEE Environmental Standard, should create different types of collaboration, such as the collaboration of IT specialists with professors in chemistry and biomolecular sciences.
This example of collaboration has already spawned the creation of recyclable paper-based portable sensors that do not consume energy, and can also track changes in their environment. Cooperating on the basis of mobile communications, they can replace the usual environmental sensors used for cloud computing.
Future strategies
Today, we are working to save energy in the process of collecting data using cloud technologies and in the process of multidirectional communications required by the "cloud". Medium-term goals include the search for energy resources for each step in cloud processes. In the longer term, it is worth moving in the direction of creating for the “cloud” devices without batteries and the need for any kind of power at all, as well as, perhaps, redesigning the data center structure in principle. In a sense, the future of our digital society depends on the effectiveness of all these efforts to achieve productive cloud and ICT in general
Source: https://habr.com/ru/post/281022/
All Articles